Recently, there are expectations and attention on a large-capacity magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) in which a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element is used. In the MTJ element, one of the two magnetic layers which sandwich a tunnel barrier layer is formed as a magnetization fixed layer (a reference layer) in which the direction of magnetization is fixed to be invariable, and the other magnetic layer is formed as a magnetization free layer (a storage layer) in which the direction of magnetization is made to be easily reversed.